Pembroke College Ball

Friday evening Kent and I attended our first of the spring/summer college balls. One of the MBA friends is a member of Pemroke College, and he rounded up a group of us to go to this year's ball. The theme was Alice in Wonderland (very Oxford-appropriate) "Through the Looking Glass." As we've never been to a college ball before, we didn't know what to expect. And know now that there are varying levels of posh-ness and themes to these balls. This one fell about in the middle of the posh-ness scale....open bars, several food stations, some carnival atmosphere, a ballroom dance contest, casino room, and a range of entertainment.

Kent enjoyed the whiskey tasting, while I favored the Mad Hatter's tea party (fancy little desserts and....jello shots...how classy). Really, the decorations were really well done and we had a great time dancing with our friends to the different bands. We ended up staying til 3am, despite the freezing cold!


I never even took my coat off....it's been so nice here and about 5pm on Friday it decided to get cold again.

One of the highlights, in my opinion, was when we were in the main dining hall (think grand Harry Potter style) checking out that tea party when this guy behind me just started singing. Then a few more started singing, and we were caught in the front row of a really great a cappella performance. We found out later that the all-male group of students performs and competes all around Europe! They were really good - and sang covers from disco, modern pop, and oldies - all mixed with a little bit of a comedy routine. Here are a few videos of "Out of the Blue":

We're looking forward to a few more of these parties this summer!